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Graphic images that reveal the devastating impact of global warming in the Arctic have been released by the US military. The photographs, taken by spy satellites over the past decade, confirm that in recent years vast areas in high latitudes have lost their ice cover in summer months.

The pictures, kept secret by Washington during the presidency of George W Bush, were declassified by the White House last week. President Barack Obama is currently trying to galvanise Congress and the American public to take action to halt catastrophic climate change caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

One particularly striking set of images - selected from the 1,000 photographs released - includes views of the Alaskan port of Barrow. One, taken in July 2006, shows sea ice still nestling close to the shore. A second image shows that by the following July the coastal waters were entirely ice-free.

The Guardian notes that the evidence from 2007 through this year has been equally grim -- not that you'd know that if you read conservative Web sites like the Drudge Report, which run banner headlines everytime a cold June front moves through some Heartland metropolis (although I haven't seen any hype on Drudge or elsewhere about the 100-degree-plus weather in Seattle). Actually, a few stray temps, high or low, even the heat wave in the Pacific Northwest, are highly irrelvant. But what is happening to the Arctic ice cover is very serious indeed, which is why this scientific cover-up is yet another high crime of the Bush years.

Because pictures don't lie. We have plenty of politicians to take care of that for us.